Southern California fire season generally starts mid-October due to the Santa Ana Winds ferocious flaming fires out west. Southern California generally does not get too many fires during summer because the winds from offshore blow in ambient air, in fact they generally get fog. Unfortunately the winds shift in October every years and blow very hard out of the east and bring with them hot, dry air. It is truly miserable with sometimes gusts of 50-60 mph, sometimes even 75 mph. It just is not fun with such hot air, sometimes in the hundreds. But worst of all are the fires, which come every year and generally burn hundreds if not thousands of acres of dry brush. Some of the greatest wildfires, which are the most ferocious and hard to fight, come from these hot east winds.

For the most part we see these winds very dry and during very high temperatures, because the normal winds are from the West coming in from off shore are being pushed back out to sea. We saw the Hurricane Season 2005 start two-weeks early, does this mean that the Santa Ana winds will start two-weeks early? Or could one say that this horrific Hurricane Season could be delayed and thus delay the start of the east winds? If the Santa Ana East Winds are early well then that means they will start now. If they are late we will see them at the end of October and generally that is the worst time for Santa Ana dry east winds.

Fire Season 1005 in Sunny Santa Ana Southern California East Winds may not be so bad this year since most of the sagebrush is still somewhat green. Also the Hurricanes off the coast of Baja are sending up some rain and cloud cover. But we also know that Santa Ana winds can last into December, thus perhaps Fire Season might be a little late this year? It is hard to predict a fire season as it has to do with so many factors and the weather is just one of them. There is also the stupidity of mankind, whether it be arson or carelessness. Will Southern California get off easy this year and save the taxpayers millions or will fire season 2005 more resemble that of 2004? What ever is to happen, we must be ready for anything just in case. Can Southern California react fast and get these fires out if they start? Or will we see more government incompetence as we did in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Season comes every year, just like fire season, so there should be no surprises. Think on this.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/